Hi,

I play live tournaments fairly regularly and was playing a 2/1 timed tourney tonight. There was either 1 or 2 rounds left in the tournament and I had only lost one game. The last time I checked the ladder I was either first or second. As the most recent game I played finished rather quickly, I left the computer to try to get something at home done very quickly.

I returned to the computer and saw that there was still a minute left on my clock, when I went to make my move I realised that I was forced to resign (fair enough) but that I was also booted from the tournament. If this had been the first round, this would make sense as it would likely be a safeguard to try to stop people from abusing the system. But since I had played several rounds in the tournament and played quite well, why did it kick me? I'm not exactly there to wrought the system. Why not give me my next board to see if I am still there? I doubt I am the first person that this has happened to, especially considering the short clock time. I couldn't have missed my clock by more than a minute.

Considering the short clock time, even letting me move on my actual game instead of forfeiting after one minute would be preferable. Maybe a button labelled "I'm still here, please don't boot me from the tournament that I have been playing in for the last half hour" could be implemented...?

Sorry to hear that, but honestly more than half of the tournament i do, happends that the first match ends that i wait hopponent first move until timeout. It seems to me that a lot of people use tournaments just to lower his elo rating ( why that, its a mistery to me). 

You yould be aware how its annoying wait 7,5 mins in a 15|10 tournament, so i can only guess that the staff decided to kick out those people that timeout without making even the first move in order to not make them annoy people for all the round.

The downside are events like your, but honestly i dont think this those happens so often, or at elast they are a lot less that account left just there for unknown reason.

The system its not perfect, but without would be even worse, because a lot of people will cotninue to gain points for timeouts and would be unfair to the others that are plaiing they own match fighting for victory.

Once again, im sorry for that, but try to consider that the alternative its worse. Now that you know what will happen, try to avoid to timeout without a single move. ;-)

That's a far too diplomatic and balanced answer for my liking I want everything to go MY way. You make a good point though, hard to ignore.

I too have been faced with the "win" in a first game as someone hasn't appeared at the tournament. I guess I was just hoping that after a certain point in the tournament there could be a touch more leniency for a verified "player." Oh well, guess I'm to be glued to the computer after all!